7 Things Nobody Needs to Know

I was tagged by Melanie Holtsman to write 7 things that nobody knows about me. It was really hard because my life is pretty much an open book and those that I share my office with know just about everything, but here goes...

1. As a teenager I was invited to spend a summer as an actortress apprentice with a summer stock company, the Vagabond Players at Flat Rock Playhouse. Besides being a stage and house manager, lighting director, learning to handle props and scenery, I played Rapunzel in the summer children’s production of a play. Rapunzel, Rupunzel, let down your golden hair…
2. I was a Girl Scout, beginning in elementary school and remaining until I graduated from high school. My troop began with 18 girls in second grade and we all graduated high school together. The key was an amazing Girl Scout leader. As a Girl Scout I visited Juliet Lowe’s birthplace in Savannah, Ga., visited the World’s Fair in NYC, mastered first aide, learned to play bridge, and did the only camping I’ve ever done in my life. The picture is of our Senior year in high school (I'm in the front on the right - notice the gloves!)

3. In high school I was voted “Most Talented” in my Senior class.

4. I was the Editor of my college annual - small Methodist girls' college.

5. I became a Special Education teacher because I had an opportunity to travel the southeast as a teen spokesperson for Easter Seals. The year that I was “Miss Teen SC”, “Miss Teen America” was named the ambassador for National Easter Seals. As a result I was invited to travel in my part of the country, to make speeches, to visit children’s hospitals, to be a part of telethons, etc. It was the first time that I had been exposed to children with disabilities. I traveled for Easter Seals for 3 years all over the southeast. The experiences and the families that I met changed my life.

6. As a child and teenager I wanted to be a missionary. If I hadn’t fallen in love with my husband in high school, I think I would have followed that dream. After my first child was born, I tried desperately to convince my husband to embrace missionary work in Africa – he thought I had lost my mind – so I decided to make teaching my mission instead.

7. When my husband went to West Virginia University to finish his doctorate, I took a job as an administrative assistant with a developmental disabilities grant. PL 94-142 (the public law that guaranteed all children a public education) was new. As a result of that job I had the opportunity to open the first classes in the state of West Virginia for severely and profoundly disabled children. I hired and trained the teachers, led the project to write the curriculum, and led the first parent meetings. It is still one of the things that I am most proud.

Now, who shall I tag?